Davenport Catholic Cemetery
Lincoln County, Washington

Davenport Catholic Cemetery, known earlier as Cemetery of the
Immaculate Conception, although the only place that name has appeared
is on the plat.

The Davenport Catholic Cemetery is located to the west of Mountain
View Cemetery, the cemetery that is maintained by the city. Both
are west and just south of the city of Davenport . Head out of Davenport
on Highway 28 south and go west on Mt. View Cemetery Road for about
1 1/4 miles.

The cemetery is in the SW 1/4 of Sec 20 T25 R37. It can be reached
via the directions above, or by traveling west from Davenport on
Highway 2 for one mile, then south one mile. It was a 23 rod square,
less the county road to the south, according to a letter written
in 1963 by Rev. John O'Brien, of the Immaculate Conception Parish.
The plat record identifies it as the Cemetery of Immaculate Conception
but it is known in most other cases as the Davenport Catholic Cemetery.
The church by that name is still active in Davenport. The cemetery
was formed in November of 1901 when the James Holland family of
Davenport donated the land.

Father O'Brien was corresponding with the Bishop of Spokane over
the deplorable condition of the cemetery, asking the Bishop's permission
to request the city to take over the cemetery. The city did not.
In Father O'Brien's letter he said that the saddest thing about
the cemetery was the condition of its records and to his knowledge,
there was no recording book for it. There was a map, but it does
not agree with what is actually there, tombstones aren't where they
should be and many graves are unmarked. He added that he had made
a new map, coming up with 56 names and 60 graves with room for 6-
or 700 more.

In the summer of 1992 Davenport Boy Scout Tim Coley took on the
cleaning of this cemetery as his Eagle Project. For a year or so
it looked good, but with no one designated as care taker, it has
reverted to its previous condition. There have been several documented
incidents of vandalism.

The cemetery was walked several times by Pat Rice and Marge Womach,
with the last time being in June 2000.